The William & Mary track & field teams opened up the outdoor season on Friday, competing at the Bob Davidson Memorial Meet at High Point. Between both the men's and women's teams, the Tribe only competing in six events, and came away with four new entries in the all-time record books.
The first event of the day was the men's hammer throw, where redshirt-juniors
KJ Cook (Buena Vista, Va.) and
Jason Wright (Huntington Station, N.Y.) were the top two collegians, finishing second and third, respectively. Cook threw the hammer 59.93m (196-7), while Wright recorded a lifetime-best throw of 56.21m (184), improving his previous best by more than three feet to move up to ninth in school history.
Staying in the throwing fields, action moved over to the javelin. In the women's competition, redshirt-freshman
Kristen Herr (Willow Street, Pa.) was fourth overall with a throw of 39.45m (129-5), while her classmate
Zoe Metzger (Wayne, Pa.) took eighth overall at 33.31m (109-3). Herr begins her Tribe career as the 10th-ranked athlete all-time at W&M. Next up was the men's javelin, and a 1-2 finish for the Tribe. True freshman
Chris Arias (Red Bank, N.J.) set a lifetime-best by a centimeter, throwing the javelin 62.98m (206-7) for the win, and to rank seventh all-time at W&M in the event. Right behind him was redshirt-freshman
Jared O'Riley (Woodstock, Ontario, Canada), throwing 61.46m (201-8) for the silver medal. O'Riley is just the 11th man ever at W&M to break 200 feet with the modern javelin (since 1985), and ranks 11th in school history.
Also on Friday, redshirt-junior
Michael Fairbanks (Fairfax Station, Va.) was the top collegian in the pole vault, clearing the bar at 4.76m (15-7.25) for second overall. In the 5,000m run, redshirt-junior
Spencer Tsai (Eugene, Ore.) improved his lifetime best by nearly 90 seconds, finishing second in 14:43.06.
Johnny Rogers (Vienna, Va.) was fifth in 14:57.07, and redshirt-freshman
Tyler Lipps (Virginia Beach, Va.) sliced almost 20 seconds off his previous best to take eighth overall in 15:01.28.
The meet continues Saturday March 20, with a full day of action for both and women starting at 10 a.m.
